Improving the Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Metal Ecotoxicity: Importance of Chromium Speciation, Water Chemistry, and Metal Release

Jonas Hedberg, Kristin Fransson, Sonja Prideaux, Sandra Roos, Christina Jönsson and Inger Odnevall Wallinder
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Jonas Hedberg: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Health, Department of Chemistry, Division of Surface and Corrosion Science, Drottning Kristinas väg 51, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden
Kristin Fransson: RISE IVF, Argongatan 30, SE-431 53 Mölndal, Sweden
Sonja Prideaux: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Health, Department of Chemistry, Division of Surface and Corrosion Science, Drottning Kristinas väg 51, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden
Sandra Roos: RISE IVF, Argongatan 30, SE-431 53 Mölndal, Sweden
Christina Jönsson: RISE IVF, Brinellvägen 68, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Inger Odnevall Wallinder: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Health, Department of Chemistry, Division of Surface and Corrosion Science, Drottning Kristinas väg 51, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Investigations of metal ecotoxicity in life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are becoming important tools for evaluating the environmental impact of a product or process. There is, however, improvement needed for LCIA of metal ecotoxicity in order to make this assessment more relevant and robust. In this work, three issues within the LCIA of metal ecotoxicity are investigated, mainly focusing on topics related to stainless steel manufacturing. The first issue is the importance of considering regional water chemistry when constructing the characterization factor (CF). A model freshwater of relevance for stainless steel manufacturing in a region of Sweden was created with chemistry different from available options. The second issue is related to the lack of consideration on changes in speciation of Cr(VI) in freshwater for a given emission, as Cr(VI) to some extent will be reduced to Cr(III). Two new options are suggested based on relationships between the Cr(VI)–total Cr ratio as a way to improve the relevancy of LCIA for Cr(VI) in freshwater. The last issue is how to treat metal release from slags in LCIA. Metal release from slags was shown to vary significantly between different ways of modelling slag emissions (differences in total metal content, slag leaching tests, estimated emissions to groundwater).

Keywords: life cycle impact assessment; life cycle assessment; USEtox; chromium; nickel; slag; ecotoxicity; stainless steel; chromium(VI); metal release (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1655-:d:215256

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